The fall colors are just about at a peak around here so I went out the other day, looking to shoot some autumn pictures. Now the problem with autumn shots is they are usually end up being the classic "postcard" shots (i.e. Boring :-))
I was wandering by the Erie Canal late in the day and came upon this sumac. It had not completely turned colors, some of the leaves were still green while others were bright red. It was strongly backlit but some of the leaves were reflecting the very blue sky.
The only thing I did in PS to this shot was set the black point and white point (using levels) and a little bit of sharpening. I did NOT mess around with saturation at all. Actually, this is pretty much what it looked like to the naked eye.
Actual exposure is 1/6 sec @ F/16, ISO 400 using a tripod.
love the hot, violent colors. you are right about the difficulties of avoiding cliches in this sort of thing, but no problem with that here. very original take.
Hi Jim, Sometimes fall leaves can be so rich in saturation that people tend to believe they are enhanced, even when they are not. :) Our maples have turned all kinds of fantastic colours this year. I heard it's something to do with the very wet summer. I like how you chose a Sumac. They are often overlooked, yet turn beautiful shades of red. The old cliche backlit leaves is still probably the best way to bring out all that colour and detail. :) Nice job. Andre
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